Is it Paul Ryan? Insiders predict Speaker will be the candidate after an open Republican convention (as he issues another denial) 

House Speaker Paul Ryan is the dream candidate many in Washington Republican circles think will end up being the GOP nominee if there's a contested convention in Cleveland. 

In this morning's Politico Playbook, Mike Allen wrote that one of the nation's 'best-wired Republicans' sees a 60 percent change of convention deadlock, followed by a 90 percent chance the convention delegates turn to Ryan, who was the vice presidential nominee the last time around. 

'He's the most conservative, least establishment member of the establishment. That's what you need,' said the source, who gives Ryan a 54 percent chance of becoming the nominee, perhaps on the fourth ballot.

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House Speaker Paul Ryan says he's not interested in becoming the GOP nominee, even though one Republican insider thinks he'll be picked by convention delegates over Donald Trump in July 

House Speaker Paul Ryan gave a speech to Capitol Hill interns in late March asking for heightened political discourse in what many viewed as a swipe at Donald Trump 

Republicans have been pitching in financially with nearly $40,000 already raised on Crowdpac for Ryan, if he sprints away with the nomination. 

Juleanna Glover, a well-known Republican lobbyist, suggested in an op-ed in the Washington Post that GOP donors 'get the real anti-Trump candidate of your dreams' by throwing donations at candidates on Crowdpac, and if said candidate becomes a reality, he or she has access to the money. 

Ryan, for his part, has publicly, continually expressed disinterest. 

'People put my name in this thing, I said, "Get my name out of that,"' Ryan told radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday, being interviewed from Israel, as he makes his first tour of the country as Speaker of the House. 'This is – if you want to be president, you should go run for president. And that is the way I see it.' 

As Politico noted, Ryan made similar statements to the Times of Israel. 'I decided not to run for president,' Ryan said. 'I think you should run if you're going to be president. I think you should start in Iowa and run to the tape.'  

But Hewitt had heard the chatter too.   

'So you're not the fresh face that Karl Rove was talking about?' Hewitt asked Ryan.

Rove had, last week, described the type of Republican, someone who has 'convictions that they can express in a compelling way,' who might excite the base of the party and not terribly disappoint those who back GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. 

That Republican sounded a lot like Ryan, which he denied. 

'I'm not the fresh face. I'm not that person,' he said, adding 'I'd like to think my face is somewhat fresh,' he joked. 

'I'm not for this conversation. I think you need to run for president in order to be president. I am not running for president, so, period. End of story,' Ryan added. 

But according to Allen's reporting, Ryan still does have that White House ambition and is playing it exactly the same way he did when he ascended to Speaker of the House, another job he first said he had no interest in. 

'But of course in this environment, saying you don't want the job is the ONLY way to get it,' Allen wrote in Playbook. 'If he was seen to be angling for it, he'd be strained and disqualified by the current mess.' 

Ryan has done at least one thing as of late to make himself seem more presidential. 

Speaking to a crop of Capitol Hill interns last month, Ryan outlined his vision for a more 'confident' America, in which people could tussle over ideas, but not spew vitriol at one another.   

'We shouldn't accept ugliness as the norm, we should demand better for ourselves,' Ryan implored.

'Instead of playing to your anxieties we can appeal to your aspirations. Instead of playing the identity politics of our base versus their base, we unite people around ideas and principles,' Ryan continued. 

'And instead of being timid we go bold – we don't just resort to scaring people, we dare to inspire people,' Ryan said, sounding like the anti-Trump many Republicans in his party want him to be.